Overview of the Country of Georgia

Overview of the Country of Georgia Technically located in Asia but having a European feel, the country of Georgia is a republic that was formerly part of the Soviet Union. It obtained its independence on April 9, 1991, when the USSR disbanded. Prior to that, it was called the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic. Key Takeaways: The Country of Georgia The country of about 5 million borders the Black Sea and has a subtropical climate at lower elevations.Georgias mountainous region provides it with diversity in its climates, based on elevation.Parts of the country have been in dispute almost since the moment it won its independence with the breakup of the Soviet Union. Capital and Major Cities More than half of the population of the country lives in urban areas. Capital: Tbilisi, population 1 million (2018 est.) The ancient capital city lies on in a gorge of the Kura River. Other major cities: Batumi, Kutaisi Government The government of Georgia is a republic, and it has a unicameral (one chamber) legislature (parliament). The leader of Georgia is president Giorgi Margvelashvili, with Giorgi Kvirikashvili serving as prime minister. People of Georgia The population of Georgia is about 4.9 million people but there is a declining population growth rate, coming in at 1.76 fertility rate (2.1 is the population replacement level). Major ethnic groups in Georgia include the Georgians, at almost 87 percent; Azeri, 6 percent (from Azerbaijan); and Armenian, at 4.5 percent. All others make up the remainder, including Russians, Ossetians, Yazidis, Ukrainians, Kists (an ethnic group primarily living in the Pankisi Gorge region), and Greeks. Languages The languages spoken in Georgia include Georgian, which is the countrys official language. The Georgian language is thought to have origins in ancient Aramaic and sounds (and looks) distinct and unlike any other languages. The BBC notes, Some consonants, for example, are pronounced from the back of the throat with a sudden guttural puff of air. Other languages spoken in Georgia include Azeri, Armenian, and Russian, but the official language of the Abkhazia region is Abkhaz. Religion The country of Georgia is 84 percent Orthodox Christian and 10 percent Muslim. Christianity became the official religion in the fourth century, though its location near the Ottoman and Persian empires and Mongols made it a battleground for influence there. Geography Georgia is strategically located in the Caucasus mountains, and its highest point is Mount  Shkhara, at 16,627 feet (5,068 m). The country occasionally suffers from earthquakes, and one-third of the country is forested. Coming in at 26,911 square miles (69,700 sq km), it is slightly smaller than South Carolina and borders Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Turkey, and the Black Sea. As would be expected, population density decreases with an increase in altitude, as the climate becomes more inhospitable and atmosphere thinner. Less than 2 percent of the population of the world lives above 8,000 feet. Climate Georgia has a pleasant Mediterranean, subtropical kind of climate in lower elevations and at the coast due to its latitudinal location along the Black Sea and protection from cold weather from the north via the Caucasus mountains. Those mountains also give the country additional climates based on elevation, as at moderately high elevations, there is an alpine climate, without much of a summer. At the highest, there is snow and ice year-round. The countrys southeastern regions are the driest, as the rain amounts increase the closer one gets to the sea. Economy Georgia, with its pro-Western views and developing economy, hopes to join both NATO and the European Union. Its currency is the Georgian lari. Its agricultural products include grapes (and wine), sugar beets, tobacco, plants for essential oils, citrus fruits, and hazelnuts. People also raise bees, silkworms, poultry, sheep, goats, cattle, and pigs. About half of the economy comes from agricultural products, employing about one-quarter of the working population. Mining includes manganese, coal, talc, marble, copper, and gold, and the country also has various small industries, such as chemicals/fertilizer. History In the first century, Georgia was under the dominion of the Roman Empire. After time spent under the Persian, Arab, and the Turkish empires, it had its own golden age in the 11th through 13th centuries. Then the Mongols came. Next, the Persian and Ottoman Empires each wanted to dominate the area. In the 1800s, it was the Russian Empire that took over. After a brief period of independence following the Russian Revolution, the country was absorbed into the USSR in 1921. In 2008, Russia and Georgia fought five days over the breakaway region of South Ossetia in the north. It and Abkhazia have long been outside of the control of the Georgian government. They have their own de-facto governments, are supported by Russia, and thousands of Russian troops are still occupying the region. South Ossetia had claimed independence from Georgia in the 1990s, creating a need for peacekeeping troops there after some sporadic fighting. Abkhazia had also declared its independence, though both regions are technically still part of Georgia as far as most of the world is concerned. Russia has recognized their independence but also has built military bases there that fly the Russian flag, and its military has put up border fencing around peoples homes, through peoples fields, and in the middle of towns. The village of Khurvaleti (700 people) is split between Russian-controlled land and that which is under Georgian control.

Definition and Examples of Tautologies in English

Definition and Examples of Tautologies in English   In grammar, a tautology is a  redundancy,  in particular, the needless repetition of an idea using different words. Repetition of the same sense is tautology. Repetition of the same sound is tautophony. In rhetoric and  logic, a tautology is a statement that is unconditionally true by virtue of its form alonefor example, Youre either lying or youre not. Adjective: tautologous or tautological. Examples and Observations Here are examples of tautology in use by famous authors in their work: It took only as many minutes to find the following half-dozen examples in one days crop of papers: A major nuclear disaster could have been sparked off . . .. . . who died of a fatal dose of heroin. . . equalized the game to a 2-2 draw. . . kept it from his friends that he was a secret drinkerDirty Den has made up his mind never to go back to EastEnders, finally severing his connection with the soap . . . a group for one-parent single mothers Tautology is either unnecessary elaboration (the Inland Revenues white-collar workers), pointless repetition (pair of twins), superfluous description (Europes huge butter mountain), a needless appendage (weather conditions) or a self-cancelling proposition (He is either guilty or not guilty). (Keith Waterhouse, Waterhouse on Newspaper Style, rev. ed. Revel Barker, 2010)At the risk of being redundant and repetitive, and redundant, let me say that tautology is the last thing children need from their parents, especially when they are in trouble.Whatever you have to say, whatever you do, avoid tautology. Try to say it only once! (Tom Sturges, Parking Lot Rules 75 Other Ideas for Raising Amazing Children. Ballantine, 2009)The new public management has brought new ailments, particularly tautology. You often see such phrases as first class organizations are those that perform excellently. (David Walker, Mind Your Language. The Guardian, Sep. 27, 2006) Mark Twain on Tautological Repetition I do not find that the repetition of an important word a few timessay, three or four timesin a paragraph troubles my ear if clearness of meaning is best secured thereby. But tautological repetition which has no justifying object, but merely exposes the fact that the writers balance at the vocabulary bank has run short and that he is too lazy to replenish it from the thesaurusthat is another matter. It makes me feel like calling the writer to account. (Mark Twain, Autobiography of Mark Twain. University of California Press, 2010) Tautologies in Logic In common parlance, an utterance is usually said to be tautologous if it contains a redundancy and says the same thing twice over in different wordse.g., John is the father of Charles and Charles is a son of John. In logic, however, a tautology is defined as a statement that excludes no logical possibilitiesEither it is raining or it is not raining. Another way of putting this is to say that a tautology is true in all possible worlds. No one will doubt that, irrespective of the actual state of the weather (i.e., regardless of whether the statement that it is raining is true or false), the statement Either it is raining or it is not raining is necessarily true.(E. Nagel and J. R. Newman, Gà ¶dels Proof, 1958  A  tautology is  a statement that is logically, or necessarily, true or is so devoid of content as to be practically empty (and thus true because completely empty statements, making no claim, cannot be false). Example: Scott Peterson did it or he didnt.  (Howard Kahane and Nancy Cavender,  Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric, 10th ed. Thomson Wadsworth, 2006) Tautology. Yes, I know, its an ugly word. But so is the thing. Tautology is this verbal device which consists in defining like by like . . .. Since it is magical, it can of course only take refuge behind the argument of authority: thus do parents at the end of their tether reply to the child who keeps on asking for explanations: because thats how it is, or even better: just because, thats all. (Roland Barthes, Mythologies. Macmillan, 1972) Tautology as a Logical Fallacy One of the most boring fallacies, the tautology, basically just repeats the premise. FAN: The Cowboys are favored to win since theyre the better team.​  (Jay Heinrichs, Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion. Three Rivers Press, 2007) Pronunciation: taw-TOL-eh-jee Also Known As: pleonasm EtymologyFrom the Greek, redundant